Archive for June, 2008

It looks great and I’m proud of it. I’ve worked hard on it over the past three weeks.

Well, I’m a little disappointed it’s not as complete as I wanted it to be. I’ve fought with getting my portfolio on here in a fancy flash file for the past four hours or so, and it’s not going to happen before I leave. Hopefully I’ll get something up tomorrow though.

I haven’t had time to run any tests on it, but I do know THIS SITE DOES NOT WORK WELL WITH EXPLORER. Several things probably play into that, but the biggest one is that Internet Explorer blows. So if you’re using it, click here and see what you’re missing. If you’re still using Netscape, don’t even talk to me.

So, yeah, a few problems. But, the most important thing is the blog function works in Explorer. The site looks best in Safari and Firefox because all of the right fonts will work in those browsers. I know, I’m working on all of this. By the end of summer if will be fully functional. I can’t figure out how to make my homepage photo load up in Explorer though.

So please, click here, to go straight to the blog. I leave for Europe in one day, and plan to blog the heck out of this new site. Some keep coming for photos. I’ll be leaving them all over the place.

I told our assigning editor I had to drop off my paper on campus. He asked me to shoot a few morning stand alones for the Web, so I thought this would be a good challenge. Finding new photos on my own turf. I sucked. The above photo is the most shot photo on campus besides ones of just Memorial Hall’s spire.

Campus is full of pockets of light and layering opportunities. I tried to use those to my advantage, but still think all of this stuff is mediocre. The photo I thought was the nicest was the lady sleeping in the sun, but despite my pleas, she didn’t want to be in the paper.

So I’ve wandered for an hour, when I’m on my way to my car to drive over to the basketball courts and a grounds crew member points up. He says, “I got three baby chicken hawks up there that you should see.” I looked up and could see what did not look like babies moving around. Thankfully, I still had the 300 in my car. I got the photo below from going up to the third floor of the Main Building and shooting through the Law Office’s window. I thank them for allowing me to shoot, because I think I interrupted a meeting.

I thought this was just proof that you should listen to those random people who tell you, “Take a picture of this,” and even better, that we all need to keep in mind that you wont know what you can find if you don’t look.

Between the lines:
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I’m buying a Mac today. ;)______________________________________________

I need a 300. No, not 300 Spartans to tear through every morsel who challenges me, because I really didn’t like that movie that much (I bet after you took it out of slow motion the whole thing is only about 15 minutes long). The 300 I am talking about is just as paramount though.

I wanted to use a 300 f 2.8 at this game because I had seen the photos in the paper. Since you basically are confined to a 70-200, unless you’re shooting Bill Frakes tight which is awesome, you’re going to get a nasty background. This is because you can’t hardly get enough zoom to really take advantage of that shallow depth of field. Is this not making sense? Let me show you:

That’s at 200 f2.8. You’re starting to lose the background, but not hardly there. What happens is when you have a longer focal length is your depth of field is more noticeable. I’m not sure who is reading this thing anymore, so if anyone wants me to explain just ask. I think most everyone should know what I’m talking about. But take this image shot with a 300 for example:

Now you see how the background just kind of drops off? That’s because of the 300 f2.8 (the 2.8 is pretty crucial). That’s why I wanted to use one, because you have a nasty background at these games.

But something that I did that helped out even more was shooting from the crows nest. This cleans up your background another 100 percent. Look at the photo above. I actually think the background contributes, because it guides your eye between the ball and the player. You can see his face because I shot it tight with the 300, but this picture could have happened with a 70-200.

If you’re at newspaper that has pool gear, and there just happens to be a 300 f2.8 sitting in the closet, use it for something, even if it’s just a t-ball game. It’ll be fun.